Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and ORIGINAL SIN…

I'm convinced that Conservatives and Religionists want to make sure that women have no choice about giving birth...that it's meant to be part of our "punishment" for original sin.  The Bible said (paraphrasing here) that women would bring forth children in sorrow and pain...and no matter whether or not a woman WANTS to be a mother, or SHOULD be a mother, or CAN AFFORD to be a mother, they want to make certain that we continue to be punished for a Dark Ages concept that has justified (and continues to justify) violence, hatred, abuse of all kinds, discrimination, etc. etc. against women. 

The fact is that not everyone is suited to be a mother...and many cannot (and SHOULD NOT) handle it emotionally, financially, physically or otherwise.  Woman also get the brunt of the responsibility for any children-emotionally, financially, physically and otherwise...so in the end, the decision should still lie largely with HER.  I'm not suggesting that fathers have no rights or anything else...I'm merely suggesting that because biology and society have laid the bulk of the responsibility, pain and everything else about the birth of children at the feet of the mother, then she should be the one who makes the final decision. 

How many grievous infanticides, etc. have we seen from mothers who were simply unable to cope for one reason or another with being a mom?  And can ANYONE say that Casey Anthony is the kind of person who should have children?  I don't see Conservatives trying to help these mothers, or feed and clothe these children.  I don't see them recognizing that the Mother is first and foremost a PERSON, a human being, and that she has a right to govern her own body and reproductive capabilities...no, they prefer the rights of a creature that science cannot truly and completely define as viable at the point of conception (no matter what the Right will tell you about this...there has never been a zygote who could survive outside the mother at the point of conception, save the ones in the Petri dishes who are kept alive artificially). 

Many men would be horrified if  women were given a say in whether or not they could masturbate...or take Viagra...or "dip their wick" wherever they pleased regardless of marital status.  Many men ARE horrified and angry over the laws requiring financial support of any progeny they provide half of the genetic material for (although many, many simply don't pay).  Many men would be aghast if women (including the women in their lives) were given ANY SAY WHATSOEVER about whether or not they should FATHER children (this includes men who use the potential for having children as a manipulative tool over women as well as men who feel it's their PERSONAL AND SOLE DUTY to spread their seed and repopulate the Earth).

These same men, however, routinely believe that it is somehow THEIR right to decide whether a woman can plan her reproductive life, whether she can decide to have children or not...or how  many...or how often.  These men apparently miss the obvious double standard here.  NO ONE should have the right to tell another that they should or shouldn't have children; Male or Female.  No one can or should guess whether anyone else is fit to be a parent (sometimes it may seem more obvious than others, but still...).  In spite of all that, there is a huge group of men (and the women they've cowed) who believe that the Congress of the United States (or even the Supreme Court) has a right to command women in this regard...to legislate the right (or in this case, the requirement) of women to have or NOT HAVE children. 

Here's a news flash...there is NOTHING that grants anyone but the woman involved this right...NOTHING.  Not the BIBLE, that massive mythology that underpins so much of the Conservatives' terrorism (that's right...I said it...TERRORISM); not the Church...and certainly not "Original Sin" which is perhaps the stupidest concept ever dreamt up.  It was dreamt up by a belief system and Church structure that was jealous of women's biological ability to give birth, and of the matrilineal tribal/clan systems that held so much political and personal power through the ages.  In order to disempower the Clan Mothers and the Wise Women, the Church demonized this most natural and biological of functions, forever damning it with the spectre of "ORIGINAL SIN". 
 
By so doing, not only were women forever disempowered in the Faith, but they were also made the most convenient scapegoat for virtually everything...some men's inability to resist temptation, disease, even crop failure.  It also gave them a terrible and effective weapon to use (and use it they did) in order to seize women's lands and chattel (which was the real cause of the witch and heretic murders committed through history) and which is now being used to justify the utter control of women's bodies and women's politics.  It's WRONG...and it needs to be stopped. 

I think you’d be hard put to find a even a single woman in a thousand (regardless of political stripe) who would tell you that they thought that abortion was a good idea.  Even those who have had abortions are heavily conflicted about it, despising the necessity even while blessing the availability of it…but they would still tell anyone that there are certainly times when it can be a necessity, whether due to emotional or physical issues or to financial or physiological ones. 

The image that many Conservatives have painted this issue with is one that shows the “modern woman”, who basically is a “slut” (one of their favorite words, not mine) and who uses abortion as “birth control”.  Fiddle dee dee…!  Far from being the truth, this is one of those evil propagandas that has made this entire subject such a hot button one.  I feel quite confident in saying that this is simply never true. 

Even if it were…wouldn’t that make Conservatives feel as though standard birth control would be a good alternative?  You’d think so…and yet they have been going after not just abortion, but birth control and women’s access to it everywhere they think they can.  They’ve attacked pharmacies who offer the “morning after pill” (which is NOT, whatever the Conservative’s may say, an ABORTION PILL).  They’ve tried to attack our access to birth control economically, attempting to make it so that Insurance Companies don’t have to pay for it…a move which makes it a gross hardship for so many women.  They seem to be making every effort to leave women of reproductive age WITHOUT ANY CHOICE AT ALL.
 
If Conservatives wanted to be decent humans about this, they’d spend more time considering how they might force ‘deadbeat Dads’ to pay support; or adopting more children who are put up for adoption (an alternative they’ve pushed for years, and yet the number of Conservative adoptive parents hasn’t gone up in any substantial way in all that time) or supporting counseling and birth control for drug addicts and alcoholics that would encourage them NOT to have children until they have gotten clean (while I support any woman’s right to have children, I honestly don’t believe that they should be allowed to or encouraged to if they are drug or alcohol addicted; anyone who has ever seen a crack baby, a drug/alcohol addicted child, or a baby dying of AIDS would understand).  They would STOP trying to destroy the Health Care Bill and any social safety net the Government provides for women and children.  BUT THEY DON’T DO ANY OF THESE THINGS…which to me, at least, puts their “sincere concern” about the health and welfare of these children in grave doubt. 

The Conservative Right continues to make this a major plank of their platform, no matter what other major crises are happening.  They’ve tried to slide it through buried in other legislation, and I expect they will continue to do so…but women need to rise up and tell them that WE WILL NOT ACCEPT IT.  THEY HAVE NO POWER OVER US, AND WE WILL NOT LET THEM GAIN ANY.  IT IS NOT THEIR RIGHT TO TELL US WHAT TO DO WITH OUR BODIES – OR TO LEGISLATE OUR FAMILY PLANNING CHOICES IN ANY WAY. IT IS AND SHOULD REMAIN A WOMAN’S RIGHT ONLY.

Fight their insistence on attacking us through legislation, shaming, and other ways.  Tell them we will no longer accept ANY males legislating something that is only a woman’s issue…and in particular…tell them that “Original Sin” is bullshit and we will not be beaten with it anymore.  Christianity should NOT be a weapon!

To Quote the brilliant Florynce Kennedy: "IF MEN COULD GET PREGNANT, ABORTION WOULD BE A SACRAMENT".